When it comes to a campaign, you will hear business still use the old term ‘newsletter’, which was news the company sent in order to update its network about things that happened in the company in the period.
The email is not dead and is very much alive and still shows the best conversion rate among the channel. However, the old tactics in which your company sends one or two emails every few weeks or months are more than dead; it even creates a push back from clients.
So, what do we need to do different from the old Newsletter?
First, we need to understand that it must be a flow of emails creating a journey for the contact, but not a general journey, a path which related to his PoT (Point of Trigger) and sub-journeys which he can change according to what we learn about his needs.
1st Step; DESIGNATE
Create the metrics which build the Funnel:
Define the segments- Each Contact has its own needs, its own PoT don't send the email's sequence to everyone on your lists, differentiate them based on position, industry, main pain point, main activities they did on your platform until now. No matter what, try to divide them into groups - Segmented audience.
PoT- Create a list of PoT, each PoT should have one feature/solution (yes, one only) from your products.
Messages- Craft three messages per each of the PoT and per the segment.
Header/Subject- Craft two headers per each PoT and per segment
Keywords- What are the keywords which are the most related to this PoT and for this segment?
Blogs/WhitePaper
Find the WP and the blogs related to this PoT and segments, connect between them, adjustment requirements.
Use Cases
The use cases or even testimonials are vital to the Engagement Funnel, it's one tool in which we create trust.
2nd Step: STRUCTURE
The marketing funnel sequence (See diagram below) can include three emails and even 15 or 20, with multiple branches and intersections, which should consist of multitype types of messages and PoTs.
Each email needs to have one purpose, such as Knowledge sharing, engagement, offering, and even invitation to participate in webinars or events. Hence, the structure of the funnel’s sequence is the crucial task in the overall building of the Marketing Funnel to increase your conversion to sales.
When it comes to building the funnel structure, you will need to concede the connections between the emails and the journey of the contact. For example: which email type will be on the sequence and when, which engagement’s type (CTA) will re-direct the contact into another funnel, or maybe to follow-up calls with sales, which landing page will trigger the Ads Campaign to re-market this contact on other channels.
Here is an example of how a funnel looks like.
First points how to build the structure:
First point: Define the goal and the objectives of this funnel: Create awareness, generate engagement, convert a trial subscriber into a paid client, or even to move a Prospect from one step on the sales funnel toward the next step, such as from QL to MQL, or to SQL.
Why is it different, and do not all the vertical or the segment receive the same emails?
Second point: Connect between the PoT and the type of email on the sequence there are big difference between messages you will implement in the emails for contacts who just registered for your services or contacts who had a discovery meeting with your team or a contact who is part of a Buying Group (SQL- Sales Qualified Lead).
Third point: Set up the Contact Journey- ‘What Happened if’: Build the follow reaction per each contact engagement, it is vital to take the contact in the right Journey. For example., if a new contact engaged, maybe the next step is to building the trust with testimonials, or forward him to your SDR for a follow up call, if the contact is in MQL stage, his Sales Director should contact him and use cases and the benefits email should send to him.
Use the metrics you crafted with your sales, Marketing, and Product team, and build an email per each of the PoT/Message/Subject you defined.
3rd Step: CONNECT
Connect the dots is not a cliché, it’s really an objective. To build the full funnel, you need to adjust and build several other points which will support the journey you take the travelers (your audiences).
Landing Page: We send a client to a landing page. Even in most cases, the website page looks great, hence the website has a lot of information and multiple points in which you can lose your client's focusing and the purpose for what you brought him.
Ads campaign: You invested a lot to bring those contacts into engagement, don’t stop there, re-market through the Search engine and display ads. With the right tool and tactics, you can build the ads that will provide those who already have visited your pages with other messages while they revisited on other pages.
Social media: schedule a list of messages you will publish on Social Media, those posts will be published on the same timeline the Email will be sent, the URL will redirect to the same landing page, but the URL will be different to analyze the conversion on a URL and channel.
Buying Group: if you are targeted B2B, in a matter of small and bigger deals, it means you will need to build a Buying Group to move the deal in the sales funnel, therefore, build the vertical you will need to generate upon further engagement with the leader contact. Which will accrue, generate leads, and add those new contacts into the funnel. You want them to learn more about your business, before the time the deals’ leader will approach them to get their insights about the deal.
4th Step; CREATE
Create the emails per the matrices, build the ads, and connect the landing page per each email and the ads. The emails should be designed, and it’s even better to create multiple types of CTA (Call to Action). Don’t forget that one of our objectives on every funnel is to learn what the keywords are, PoT which trigged the client to engage with us.
5th Step: AUTOMATED
Connect all the emails, Landing Pages and ads into the Marketing Funnel sequence. The automation needs to generate a sequence of reactions per the Contact engagements. each email, blog, re-marketing via the Demand Gen. (Paid Ads), is a follow up after the Contact has visited on one of your web pages, rather it’s from an email or ads online.
Summary:
Marketing Funnel is the main catalyzer in your Inbound Marketing Machine.
The Marketing Funnel connects multiple channels (email as well) into one focused sequence.
Flow of reactions which auto-pilots a Contact on the right Journey per his needs and the Company's objectives
Connect the dots to ensure conversion rate.
About the Author:
Mr. Kiefer Hazaz who has a 20+ year career, encompasses all aspects of Sales operation, Marketing strategy, Product management, Business development, and C-Level experience, from a variety of High-Tech Companies size and industries. The vast expertise has provided Mr. Hazaz
the potential to maximize Marketing ROI and increase sales through successful ABM Implementations and Marketing Automation Integrations for companies all over the world. Kiefer Hazaz LinkedIn